1970 NIMC Festival Tests

It Was Ian Woodside After All!

This report and pictures by Ester Crawford first appeared in Motorweek dated 2nd July 1970.

DESPITE being the only form of motor sport in which Ulster has always been supreme driving tests have always been the poor relation when it comes to money. Racing, rallying, autocross and so on are all sponsored from time to time with money to be won but never in driving tests. However, Desmond Motors of Londonderry have put the situation right and last Monday evening’s Foyle Festival Autotest meeting organised by the North of Ireland Motor Club had prize money to the tune of no less than £200. This was fairly evenly divided among the classes with £30 being set aside for a North v South team competition.

Despite the longish drive to Derry for a lot of people all the big names in Ulster test driving were present plus a fair selection of Southern drivers and Englishman Norman Morley with his well-known MG 1300. Four tests were laid out, three of them at road junctions on a new industrial site on the Buncrana Road and the other in the car park of the nearby Milanda Bakery, and these had to be attempted three times each.

After some delay, due partly to some very heavy showers which sent everyone running for cover and partly to some dithering by the officials, the event got under way with Robert Woodside’s Volkswagen leading the way.

BRAKELESS

However Woodside soon discovered to his chagrin that his car was more or less brakeless and so it did not look as if he would be in-the running. It was the last runner in the field Harold Hagan who had FTD with his Midget in 43.2, a full second in front of Roger Cree’s Sprite with Ian Woodside more than a second further behind. English expert Morley did not impress too much here being very wild and rough and the same — but even more so — could be said of a very enthusiastically driven Triumph GT6.

Also looking somewhat out of form was Ronnie McCartney in a Mini he had just bought the day before. So far this season Ronnie has made a habit of competing in cars he has never driven before and such a handicap may be too great even for him.

Test two was a very good one, requiring nearly all the possible driving test manouvres and really sorting out the men from the boys. Adding to the entertainment here was none other than “CB” Curley who was acting as commentator and doing a splendid job, although Ted Hobson may not have been amused at being the target of Cahal’s humour for about five minutes.

Fastest was Ian Woodside with 42.2 with Cree on 42.8 and Charles Crawford (Midget) and Derek Boyd (GP Beach Buggy) both on 43.0. Ian Woodside and Boyd shared test three, another good one, with 31.6 followed by Charlie Irwin on 32.1. The fourth test was a somewhat pointless affair, involving entering three boxes both forwards and in reverse, and gave rise to some controversy as first of all the official said it should be done as in the diagram and then later allowed everyone to do it as they pleased – as stated in the test instructions.

Furthermore the timing here seemed to be none too accurate and indeed this is a criticism which could be levelled at the whole event. However there did not seem to be much difference in the times no matter what way the test was carried out for John Lyons recorded 43.8 doing it the “crafty way” and Robert Woodside took only 43.3 doing it as per diagram. Both Harold Hagan and Derek Boyd dealt their prospects a blow here by nudging a marker.

SECOND LAP

The second lap went fairly uneventfully with Cree, Derek Boyd, John Lyons and Robert Woodside — despite his lack of braking power, and when Cahal Curley mentioned this fact at test two, the spectators promptly retired to less suicidal positions than they had previously been occupying – winning a test each. Neither were there any big surprises on lap three where Hagan, Boyd, Ian Woodside and Lyons made the fastest times. However the normally very consistent Charles Crawford made his second boob of the evening by touching the pylon in test one.

TASK

Then came the task of working out the results! This is normally a fairly straightforward if tedious task but on this occasion a couple of highly qualified technical people made something of comic opera of the job. First of all Robert Woodside was announced the winner but this was so obviously not the case that even Woodside himself was forced to point out the mistake—even though a bottle of whiskey was at stake, never mind the money.

So Roger Cree was then nominated but just to be on the safe side he broached the bottle at once in case there should be any further revisions! Then it was discovered that Alan Murray had been left out of the reckoning even though his performance placed somewhere in the top six or so. However at last everything appeared to be settled and the money was handed out. However a few days later a recount revealed that Ian Woodside was the proper winner and as far as we know the proper order for the first ten is as follows:

1. Ian Woodside (MG Midget) 498.1 marks lost;
2. John Lyons (Cooper S) 499.9;
3. Roger Cree (AH Sprite) 504.8;
4. Charlie Irwin (Cooper) 506.1;
5. Ken Irwin (Cooper S) 506.7;
6. Harold Hagan (MG Midget) 510.3;
7. Alan Murray (1000 Mini) 516.9;
8. Charles Crawford (MG Midget) 518.7.

After six rounds the leading positions in the Ulster Driving Test Championship for the Hopkirk Trophy are as follows:

Harold Hagan (MG Midget) 47 points;
Roger Cree (AH Sprite) 37;
Ian Woodside (MG Midget) 29;
Charles Crawford (MG Midget) 25;
Charlie Irwin (Cooper) 20;
David Grant (Cooper S) 18;
Dermot Carnegie (Mini 1000) 17;
Robert Woodside (VW 1500) 15,
Derek Boyd (Beach Buggy) 15;
John Lyons (Cooper S) 13.

At this point Hagan certainly looks to be the favourite but with four rounds to go, starting with the UAC event at Bangor on July 8, anything could still happen especially as only the best seven out of the ten posible scores Will count in the final total.

ESLER CRAWFORD.